Digital watermarking is the science of encoding physical and electronic objects with plural-bit digital data, in such a manner that the data is essentially hidden from human perception, yet can be recovered by computer analysis. In physical objects, the data may be encoded in the form of surface texturing, or printing. Such marking can be detected from optical scan data, e.g., from a scanner or web cam. In electronic objects (e.g., digital audio or imagery—including video), the data may be encoded as slight variations in sample values. Or, if the object is represented in a so-called orthogonal domain (also termed “non-perceptual,” e.g., MPEG, DCT, wavelet, etc.), the data may be encoded as slight variations in quantization values or levels. The present assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,122,403, and 6,614,914, are illustrative of certain watermarking technologies.
Watermarking can be used to tag objects with a persistent digital identifier, and as such finds myriad uses. Some are in the realm of device control—e.g., tagging video data with a do-not-copy flag that is respected by compliant video recorders. (The music industry's Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), and the motion picture industry's Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG), are working to establish standards relating to watermark usage for device control.) Other watermark applications are in the field of copyright communication, e.g., indicating that an audio track is the property of a particular copyright holder.
This document describes systems that use content identification technologies used to associate an object with a store of related data. For example, an image watermark may contain an index value that serves to identify a database record specifying (a) the owner's name; (b) contact information; (c) license terms and conditions, (d) copyright date, (e) whether adult content is depicted, etc., etc. (The present assignee's MarcCentre service provides such functionality.)
Another watermark application that encodes data to associate an object with a store of related data, is so-called “connected content” technology. In such applications, a watermark in one content object (e.g., a printed magazine article) serves to link to a related content object (e.g., a web page devoted to the same topic). The watermark can literally encode an electronic address of the related content object, but more typically encodes an index value that identifies a database record containing that address information. U.S. Pat. No. 6,947,571 details a number of connected-content applications and techniques. The present assignee markets such technology under the brands “Digimarc MediaBridge,” “Digimarc Mobile” and “ImageBridge.” In the Digimarc MediaBridge offering, the system that associates object identifiers with corresponding computer resources is termed the “Grand Central” router.
One aspect of the invention is a method of linking a content object with a network resource. The method comprises presenting a content object to a reader; discerning from data obtained by the reader an identifier associated with the content object; transferring the identifier to an indexing system; and receiving from the indexing system an internet address corresponding to said content object. The method further includes sending user data to a master system, the user data providing information related to user location; receiving from said master system an address of an indexing system close to the user location, the master system selecting the indexing system from among plural different indexing systems; and transferring said identifier to said selected indexing system using the address.
In one embodiment, the indexing system makes several routers available, and utilizes them in manners designed to speed system response time.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description.